A Waldorf in Beverly Hills is a step closer

The Beverly Hills City Council has taken a key step toward approving the Beverly Hilton’s controversial plan to build the West Coast’s first Waldorf-Astoria Hotel along with 110 luxury condos at the busy corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards.

Tuesday night the council, by a 3-2 vote, adopted amendments to city land use and zoning rules that will enable the Hilton to proceed with a $500-million “revitalization plan” calling for the addition of two high-rise condo buildings, gardens and open space on its nearly nine-acre site. A final vote is scheduled for next Tuesday.

Project opponents said they anticipated a signature-gathering campaign to qualify the Hilton issue for the November ballot.

The initial approval, which was expected despite broad community concerns about large-scale development and traffic, comes atop the council’s 4-1 vote April 9 to green-light a high-rise condo and retail project at the site of the defunct Robinsons-May department store, next door to the Hilton.

“It’s a good time to be a developer in Beverly Hills,” said J.A. Mirisch, a film distributor and local blogger. “That’s the message the City Council is sending.”

The proposal by Oasis West Realty, the Hilton project developer, calls for demolishing 217 Hilton rooms and building a 170-room Waldorf-Astoria for an overall reduction of 47 rooms. The Waldorf-Astoria would be 12 stories, four stories higher than the existing Hilton.

The plan also includes 110 condos in two separate buildings that would be branded as Waldorf-Astoria residences. One building would range from six to eight stories, with as many as 36 units. The other would start at 16 stories and rise to 18, with as many as 74 units. The average condo would be about 3,700 square feet. Corinne Verdery, who is heading the project, said the company hopes to get $1,500 a square foot, or about $5.6 million for an average unit.

Next door, plans for the 9900 Wilshire project on the eight-acre Robinsons-May site include a small amount of retail and restaurant space and 235 ultra-luxury condo units in two buildings -- one beginning at nine stories and rising to 13 and the other starting at 13 stories and going to 15.

Beverly Hills Mayor Barry Brucker said he applauded the idea of a Waldorf-Astoria and a spiffier Hilton but voted against the plan because “it’s just bigger and more massive” than he would like.

“Our gateway coming into Beverly Hills from the west on Wilshire, in my opinion, will be completely obliterated,” he said.

Marc Saleh, an orange grower and Beverly Hills resident who supports the Hilton plan, said he had watched for years as the iconic hotel deteriorated and became dated.

“It’s exciting to think of it revitalized,” he said. “It’s more height,” he acknowledged, “but also more parking and traffic abatement.”

The Hilton has vowed to spend as much as $10 million on traffic improvements.

Verdery said the Hilton project would generate $750 million in revenue for the city over 30 years.

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martha.groves@latimes.com